Tennis possesses numerous features for casual all the way up to professional-caliber players. As a game, tennis requires skill and strategy as well as quickness and stealth. As a form of excercise, tennis is a thorough aerobic workout requiring a high level of stamina. And as a competitive sport, tennis challenges the fittest athletes and is an extremely popular draw. Despite tennis'appeal, many are prevented from regularly or even occasionally enjoying the sport as the number of courts is limited. The large area required combined with the high demand for available courts results in an inevitable shortage. Alternative net games, such as paddle ball, have smaller playing areas but still take up a substantial space. Moreover, fast net games using balls such as tennis and paddle ball require some type of perimeter fencing to prevent stray balls from getting lost. Oftentimes, would-be tennis players resort to juggling or hitting against a wall for lack of a proper court, especially in crowded urban areas. Even if there is a surplus of courts, most are out of doors and become unusable during the winter months in colder regions of the country. In these areas, the number of indoor courts is even more scarce with an associated boost in the price of playing.
There have been attempts to design tethered tennis games and practice set-ups to provide a simulated tennis experience in lieu of the real thing. For example, British Patent No. 408,160 shows a tennis practice set-up consisting of a pair of spaced verticle poles supporting a transverse cord secured to a resilient anchorage on either end within the poles. A second cord is slidably mounted to the transverse cord and has a ball secured at the free end. A player drives the ball over a net until the second cord is stretched taut, at which point the resilient anchors exert a return force bringing the ball back over the net for the player to hit again. Unfortunately, this practice game is only designed for use by one person at a time. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,658,330 and 4,216,960 disclose similar tennis training devices. French Patent No. 39,756 discloses a tethered ball and net game with the ball anchored to a central region of the net. The drawback to this is that the play is artificially focussed around and across the center of the net. Thus, there is a need for a more versatile and accessible net game which overcomes the drawbacks of prior games.